The domestic equity indices continued to trade with moderate gains in the early afternoon trade. Sentiment remained optimistic despite a rise in inflation. Nifty traded above 25,550 mark after hitting day’s low of 25,372.70 in early trade.
Media shares dropped for three consecutive trading sessions.
At 12:25 PM ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex advanced 286.55 points or 0.35% to 82,934.29. The Nifty 50 index added 111 points or 0.44% to 25,582.30.
In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index added 0.24% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index slipped 0.29%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,620 shares rose and 2,490 shares fell. A total of 219 shares were unchanged.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rallied 6.67% to 12.51. The Nifty 24 February 2026 futures were trading at 25,603, at a premium of 20.7 points as compared with the spot at 25,582.30.
The Nifty option chain for the 24 February 2026 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 74 lakh contracts at the 26,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 60.8 lakh contracts was seen at the 25,500 strike price.
Economy:
India’s wholesale price index (WPI) inflation increased to 1.81% in January 2026 compared with 0.83% in December 2025. The positive rate of inflation in January 2026 was due to an increase in prices of the manufacture of basic metals, other manufacturing, non-food articles, food articles and textiles, among others.
Food inflation picked up to 1.41% in January after remaining flat at 0.00% in December.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Media index fell 1.18% to 1,445.55. The index tumbled 3.22% in the three consecutive trading sessions.
Tips Music (down 2.83%), Saregama India (down 1.5%), PVR Inox (down 1.42%), Hathway Cable & Datacom (down 1.42%) and Sun TV Network (down 1.37%), Network 18 Media & Investments (down 1.32%), Nazara Technologies (down 1.02%), Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 0.94%), D B Corp (down 0.81%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
EFC (I) tumbled 4.60%. The company’s consolidated net profit jumped 54.21% to Rs 62.41 crore on a 52.09% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 269.58 crore in Q3 FY26 over Q3 FY25.
KFin Technologies rallied 4.83% after the company’s consolidated net profit increased 2.02% to Rs 91.99 crore on 27.88% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 370.87 crore in Q3 FY26 over Q3 FY25.
Earkart shed 0.27%. The company has announced that it has been awarded a government order worth Rs 4.12 crore through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform from Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO).